


The girl with the blue purse

by AgenteYumi



Series: And even if it takes my life I will not stop loving you [5]
Category: Coco (2017)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, F/M, I just wanted to imagine how they could have been as kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 10:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12885480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgenteYumi/pseuds/AgenteYumi
Summary: “Imelda?” the teacher called for the second time. Nothing. The woman shrugged and continue to register her class.Hector looked at the empty seat. Why Imelda wasn’t there?





	The girl with the blue purse

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXAfpFP3vSg)

Hector liked the mathematics class because they were learning fractions. And fractions were so similar to the notes that the priest was teaching him on the afternoons. But he hated lots the poetry class, everything seemed so cheesy to him.  
He always had his place at Ernesto’s side, who used that adventage to copy the homework from him. Hector didn’t minded about it, the teacher usually noticed and called out his best friend and he promised to don’t do that again… for a few days.  
He also hated the roll call. He felt like a prisioner reporting to the guard that he was back.

“Imelda?” the teacher called for the second time. Nothing. The woman shrugged and continue to register her class.  
  
Hector looked at the empty seat. Why Imelda wasn’t there?  
  
And the day continued with the literature class, the teacher made everyone to read El Periquillo Sarniento and asked about their opnions to the kids  
  
“I hated it!” Ernesto said. “On this book the winner is not the good guy but the most  _cabrón_  guy!”  
  
So the teacher put a pair of donkey ears upon the kid’s head and sended him to a corner of the classroom. For Hector it was some luck because at the recess he was so lost on his own mind that he was losing all his marbles, even his beloved ojo de gato. It wasn’t until Almita, a girl that sometimes followed Hector everywhere, told him about that that he seemed to notice something.  
  
“But you will see tomorrow” he promised, with his proud  wounded.  
  
“Tomorrow we’re going to play spin so who knows when you’re going to take back your marbles,  _sope_ ” one of the kids mocked him.  
  
The classes continued and at the end of the day, Ernesto and Hector always walked together back to their homes. Even there he noticed the absence of Imelda, she was always walking in front of them, talking to her friends. She had a blue woved purse. Hector was so distracted that he didn’t heard the daily list of what Ernesto was going to buy for himself once he were rich and famous.

  
“I’m going to buy hundreds of horses and every horse will have its own pitiada chair” he ended the list. Hector laughed.

  
“I’m always the one who gives you money on recess. If you continue like this, you’re going to have to pay me with the horses and the chairs!”

  
“That’s why you’re going to be my partner! And we both will travel around the world. To the United States, Africa, China, Europe and… Veracruz!”  Ernesto passed on of his arms around the shoulders of his friend and painted with his free hand the world that he wanted to see. For some reason, Veracruz was the most remote place that he could think of.

  
“Hey, and you’re not thinking about settling down?” Hector asked, without understanding the last expresion, but he heard that expresion so much from the adults that he decided to use it to sound like one. At the sight of Ernesto’s confusion, he decided to answer with what he heard the adults say after the expresion. “To marry and have children”.

  
“Ah, no. If I can judge from my parents face, I don’t think that  that marriage thing is so much fun. Why people gets married, Hector?”

  
“I don’t know, to have more babies. The adults love the babies, always they’re saying that they want to make more."

At the door of Hector’s house, they said goodbye. His mom had the food ready because at the afternoons he went to work as boleador and after that, to the church to music classes.

  
"Chamaco, you haven’t eat anything and your mom made chiles rellenos, your favorites!” his uncle Jesus said. “Or you have worms or you’re in love, chamaco”

  
“He’s just a boy for that stuff, Chuy” his mom complained, angry at the clear sign that her little angel was growing up.

  
“He’s 8 years old. So… not worms” he laughed.

  
“¡Chuy!”

  
It wasn’t his day on the polishing of shoes, but it was a luck that every time he made a mistake, he was able to repair it. On music class, the priest nagged him because he was playing so distracted. He went back home and did his homework as his mother served him the night snakc, a cup of warm chocolate and a pan dulce. Then he went to play the last hours of light with Ernesto and came back for the dinner.  
  
The next day, the teacher called him at the end of the day. Ernesto awaited for Hector at least for a seconds until he decided to leave because he was drooling over the veal that his mother had made for that day.

  
“Hector, what’s this?” Hector looked at the notebook as if it wasn’t his. He was sure of had made the homework but instead of that he saw Imelda’s name written on it, sometimes with poorly drawn flowers and themselves drawed on it.

  
“I… uh… let’s see…” he mumbled. “I promise to bring to you tomorrow the homework of yesterday and today but corrected. Just don’t tell my mom or she will give me the chancla, Miss Maria”.

  
“I’ll let this pass because you’re my best student. But Hector, you’re still a child to think about girls. You’re still tender for the pains of love, better try to study more”

  
The kid became red as a tomato  and took his notebook back.

  
“I love Imelda and we’re going to get married, I will become famous and grow old together and every day I’ll make a different song for her!”

  
And he leaved as fast as he could the classroom. His teacher remained skeptical.

  
After noticing that his best friend wasn’t awaiting for him, Hector walked alone, thinking about what he just said, until he crashed into somoene. He saw the blue purse.

  
“Hi, Imelda!” he greeted her, nervous. Hector extended his hand to help her get up, but she rejected him.

  
“What’s up, Hector” she smiled, with her toothless smile.

  
“Why you didn’t came to school?”

  
“I got a fever. Now I’m fine so my mom told me to come and tell the teacher to give me the homework of the past days. Well… see you tomorrow!” and she continued her way, with her small braids bouncing at her back.  
  
The next day, while the teacher was talking about poetry, Hector took out another notebook, different from the one he used for school, bought with the money he earned from his job. He started to write some ideas. If he was going to marry Imelda someday, he better have the perfect song for the ocasion.

**Author's Note:**

> 1- Almita (a diminutive for “Alma”) is a reference to the fic “Nieve de limón” from @miguelcocofangirl, one of my favorites
> 
> 2- I wanted to add some paralelism between Miguel and Hector, making him a shoe polisher too. 
> 
> 3- Cabrón: Is like “asshole” or shithead, but sometimes saying “you’re a cabrón!” means that that person is pretty witty.  
> sope. It’s like silly but on a childish way.
> 
> 4- I guess you can get somewhat confsed about the times of eating so I’ll explain.   
> On Mexico sometimes we start the day with a small breakfast, like some coffee and fruit or pan dulce. Then a more elaborate breakfast which can include orange juice, coffee (again), chocolate (like your hot cocoa but this is made differently), and a dish like chilaquiles, tacos, hot cakes, eggs… sometimes even meat!. Nowadays we just do this on sundays or holidays because #fastlife.   
> At 12 p.m we eat again the lunch, kids usually eat it sooner, at 10 a.m.  
> Then, back at home, we have our main meal of the day (equivalent to your dinners, if you’re american). That occurs between 2-4 pm.   
> Some kids have a nightsnack between 6-7 p.m. Then the dinner, which is usually something easy to diggest. I’m used to have for dinner a glass of milk and bread and that’s it.   
> A friend of mine went to study the the USA for a semester and he was STARVING lots and never could adjust himself to their schedules of eating.
> 
> 5- Pitiado: a kind of work on leathery with thread of agave. It looks somewhat silvery (if you noticed Hector's and Ernesto's belts on the movie, their belts have this kind of work). You can get belts piteados but with silk thread. Those are cheaper but the originals are hand-made.  
> I was screaming the 3 times I saw the movie -so far- when I noticed the pitiado on the belts because I love this kind of work.  
> Here more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piteado 
> 
> Chiles rellenos is a dish with poblanos chilis stuffed with something inside (hence the name) like cheese or meat, then covered with egg batter and flour and fried.
> 
> La de la mochila azul  
> -Pedro Fernández
> 
> “What’s wrong with you, kiddo, what’s going on?”  
> They asked me on the house and on my school.   
> And I didn’t knew until today when I heard the roll call  
> And she didn’t answered
> 
> The girl with the blue backpack, the girl with sleepy eyes  
> She leaved me with restlessness and low grades.  
> I don’t want to go to the recess because I don’t have fun with anything.  
> I can’t read neither write  
> I miss so much her eyes.
> 
> As a souvenir I have her pencil colors  
> My notebook has blots of love  
> I want to see her on her seat  
> Because if she doesn’t come back, my classroom will be so sad.


End file.
